Urban studies and planning Essays

Letter of motivation Urban Studies: Understanding Diversity and Inequality  “The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious

Urban environment influences the way people live and shape their everyday lives. Examining the impact private mobility had on the growth of the physical form of the cities and out of town retail centers, the negative effects these changes had on city centers and people’s lives will be indicated. Accordingly, this essay will discuss contemporary urban design strategies to bring back urban livability. The study is centered on what the urban and residual landscape transformations were due to the

Statement The field of urban planning has evolved with the human and urban history. Cities around the world offer lessons to each other by having experimented with different policies and programs to address various urban challenges. As a planning student, I enjoy the fundamental nature of diversity of the field, and I was enlightened by my learning experiences in the States. I was not only able to learn from the country which has experienced distinct phases of planning and urban development, but also

While each movie presents a unique plot and set of circumstances, the underlying narratives provide insightful perspectives into the transformation of the Los Angeles urban life and some of the fundamental factors that inspired these changes. Consequently, it is imperative to explicate how external factors such as urban sprawl, urban decline, and adaptive reuse impacted on the characters discussed in the films. Notably, Chinatown’s plot is centered around the historical building of the aqueduct,

After finishing my undergrad studies in Architecture technology at the New York City College Of Technology, I want to return to academic study and undertake graduate studies in urban planning at the Hunter College. While I was pursuing my college undergrad degree at NYCCT, I got a job as an intern working alongside an urban planner at the department of health and mental hygiene.This internship was an amazing experience. During my time there I had the opportunity to participate in several interesting

The term urban decentralization usually refer to the decisions of people to move from the center district to suburban area. In united stated for example, and during the last century, people tend to move outward the metropolitan areas toward the suburban locales. The decentralization and regional administration system of the United States encourage people to locate in the suburban cities. The population in the central city decreased from 7517 residents per square mile to 2716 in other hand the suburban

of the greatest urban geographers of our time Jane Butzner (Jacobs) was born. Jane was a visionary, activist, write, and urban planner that made a significant contribution to the way we see modern city planning. Jane started her career in New York City in the field of journalism. However Jane’s true interest lies in urban design. In 1952 Jane became an associate editor of the Architectural Forum. Through this Jane became sceptical of the traditional American view of city planning. Jane’s first published

Intro City planner, urban designer, and author Jeff Speck has devoted his career and third book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, to what he believes is the essential element that makes cities thrive, walkability. A concept that he regards as one of the best solutions to what is awry in most American cities, that if implemented, could solve an abundance of problems within society. He makes it clear that this isn’t a book on why cities work or how they work, but rather

1 Introduction This study forms part of a broader research project that investigates ecological resilience and human disturbances in small urban parks and their implications for urban park design, planning and management. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a method for integrative evaluation of ecological and anthropogenic characteristics of small urban parks. Small urban parks, often referred to as pocket parks (Nordh et al. 2009; Peschardt et al. 2012; Nordh & Østby 2013; Peschardt et al

assess the degree to which the level of economic development of a country affects planning and management in urban area’s’ In this essay I will be exploring how the economic development of a country affects the planning and management of urban areas, using 4 different expels and case studies to explore, countries at different levels of economic development and how this affects their planning and management of urban areas, and how they differ from one another. I will explore the London 2012 Olympic

presented as being riddled with crime and violence. This is the culture found within the impoverished black neighborhoods. Despite what it may seem at first, the root of this problem is not found with the people themselves, but a problem with the urban development itself. With the assistance of the government or rich people, the neighborhood of Crenshaw, or similar poor neighborhoods, could have a dramatic reduction in crimes. However, there is no attempt to change

In The Just City, Susan Fainstein begins to “to develop an urban theory of justice and to use it to evaluate existing and potential institutions and programs” in New York, London, and Amsterdam (p. 5). She wants to make “justice the first evaluative criterion used in policy making” (p. 6). While her book centers on idealism as a way to combat inequity and issues of justice in policy and planning, some may say that this is an unrealistic perspective. Throughout this book she explains the relationship

Jane Jacobs is best known for her profound impact on urban studies. Jacob’s critique of 1950s urban planning in her book The Death and Life of American Cities has been one of the greatest influences on modern day city planning. While her ideas continue to live on in the design of modern cities, many of Jacobs’ characterizations of successful cities are overly theoretical and impractical. Because Jacob’s logic is flawed with hasty generalizations and fallacies of composition, city planners should

The opportunity to study in Amsterdam gives me so many opportunities to make my degree program of social political justice and expand my capstone thesis on the topic of urban development. I have made my capstone project on the development of Springfield, Massachusetts which was founded by the Puritans who settled in Holland before coming to the United States. The opportunity to study the countries influence in Springfield Massachusetts in relationship to Amsterdam is what I hope to achieve. Studying

I am an architect, urban designer, social scientist, researcher, community advocate, and a planner. I have worked in a diverse range of settings, and in a variety of positions, from an Intern in a six employee architectural firm, to the Secretary of an NGO; and from a Junior Architect, to an independent Researcher on multiple self-initiated urban projects. I have also worked on a wide range of projects, from analyzing policy memos to the application of Visual Machine Learning. I am writing to express

Impacts of Urban Sprawl: A Review Petricia Gilbert Purdue University Environmental Impacts of Urban Sprawl The term sprawl was first coined by Earle Draper in 1937. Earle Draper was one of the pioneers in planning in Southeastern states of America. Since then, the term ‘sprawl’ has diversified its meaning. When the World War II ended, several themes developed which outlines the modern argument over sprawl and its relationship with development (Nechyba & Walsh, 2004). Urban sprawl has

If you had been a reformer during this era (remember planning as a profession did not yet exist), what type of progressive era urban reform would you adopt and implement? Why? Would it engage with the good government movement or not? Why? What lessons, if any, would your response then provide for your planning practice today? In the scenario of being a late 19th century planner, I feel I would have been heavily influenced and inspired by the ideals of Sir Ebenezer Howard. The Garden City was revolutionary

Mindy Fullilove explores urban planning of cities through discussing the beauty versus equity aspects of planning. First she introduces urban renewal in terms of piercing the streets of cities in order to widen and make them beautiful (Fullilove, 53). However in the effort to beautify cities or make “progress”, as they called it at the time, urban planners destroyed the homes and lives of the poor (Fullilove, 53). An individual by the name, Marc Weiss, had stated that ‘ “urban renewal agencies in many

Urban Approach of Contemporary Urban Theorists Contemporary urban theorists have concentrated on finding the effects of state involvement on the market mechanism. They are seperated from the traditional approach of not assessing the location of the cities as a data and have strived to establish a link between the theory and the real life since these effects are reflected in the structure of urban space. While the city has been established, the concept of desire line has established an approach that

The United States thus far has in planning has treated people in its’ path as a nuisance to be solved. If we look at planning from Boyer’s (1986) point of view, who highlights planning as a “search for spatial order”, planning has overlooked who its’ order is suppose to benefit. Planning has been treating the masses as a sickness that is named disorder, rather than as beneficiaries. In 1890, Jacob Rite, published How the Other Half Live, which provided vivid descriptions of the New York City Slums